Aims and objectives
This project is an effort to digitise and preserve outdoor inscriptions of the Champa civilisation in Central Vietnam. In the second century, the Cham people adopted Sanskrit script from India and engraved it on stone steles. By the fourth century, they created their own script, which from then on became dominant in the history of Cham writing until the 15th century. As a result, in the central region of Vietnam, a system of more than 100 Champa steles once existed. Although some have been stored in national and local museums, there are still many inscriptions located outdoors. Many newly discovered steles in nature are not yet known, such as the Phuoc Ha inscription (Ninh Thuan province) and the Ho Giang inscription (Binh Dinh province).
When the team first surveyed these steles in 2022/23, most of the inscriptions were in a state of abandonment, desolation and serious degradation from human activity, natural erosion and climate change. The team will re-survey and digitise the steles (photograph their current state, the inscriptions themselves and stamp and photograph the stamps) to archive, introduce and help preserve this inscription system.
